Tag Archives: Amy Williams

My great friend Charles led the thoughts at church a couple of weeks ago and a mighty fine job he did of it (listen here).

The brief summary of his thoughts is as follows:

The Israelites knew how to build! They had a background in brick-creation and tent-making. These were skills that God used and enhanced for the building of the tabernacle. In the same way, our skills are transferable when building a place to worship God.
This is not a place made of stones, but of people, a place where we are both the builders and the building material. We are all important and all have something to give. Our uniqueness is not weakness and our weakness may be strength. When we choose to build with God, we build something that keeps growing and doesn’t decline. Finally, We must all “excel in the gifts that build up the church” 1 Cor 3:10-15

This got me thinking about an interview that I had recently read with Amy Williams – the British Skeleton Bobsled Gold medallist of 2010.
The salient point of the interview was this sentence.

“…every decision, every single day was, ‘will this help me win gold, yes or no?’ Is this ice cream going to help me? No, then don’t eat it. It was as brutal as that.” Amy Williams

The laser-focus on that Gold medal was something that impressed me and stuck in my consciousness, so when Charles quoted from 1 Corinthians “excel in the gifts that build up the church”, Amy’s words came back to me.

Almost immediately, I merged the two things together in my head to come up with this mantra for our church lives.

“…every decision, every single day needs to be, ‘will this build up the church, yes or no?’ Is this {insert action / comment here} going to help? No, then don’t do it.”